the times when the polytheists prostrate to the sun—even though the person praying prostrates only to Allah—as a safeguard against what leads to such wrongdoing. How much more so when the harm actually occurs, with a person invoking the deceased and supplicating through him, just as it occurs when someone prostrates to the sun at sunrise or sunset!

Idol worship originally arose from the veneration of graves, as Allah Most High says:

“And they said, ‘Never abandon your gods; never abandon Wadd, Suwā‘, Yaghūth, Ya‘ūq, or Nasr.’”

The early generations, including Ibn ‘Abbās and others, said: These were righteous men among the people of Noah. When they died, people devoted themselves to their graves, then made images of them, and then worshipped them.

Furthermore, it is well known that among those buried in the Bāb al-Saghīr cemetery are Companions, their Successors, and the generation after them who are superior to these four shaykhs. Why, then, should these four be singled out for supplication at their graves rather than those who are superior to them? Moreover, each of these shaykhs and others like them has people who love him and honour him through supplication, rather than another shaykh. Has Allah commanded that supplication be offered at the grave of one rather than another, as the polytheists do with them? These people resemble those who

“took their rabbis and monks as lords besides Allah, and the Messiah, son of Mary, though they were commanded only to worship one God. There is no deity worthy of worship except Him. Exalted is He above whatever they associate with Him.”